TV

Mad Men
1x03 Marriage of Figaro [2nd watch]
Possibly my favourite thing about Mad Men is how comically well they evoke the period. When a parent slaps someone else's boy for being naughty, the dad walks over saying "what's going on here?"... and rather then erupting into an argument about punishing the child as it would today, the dad agrees wholeheartedly and gets his kid to apologise. Every episode of Mad Men is packed with these moments, and it's just one of the reasons the show is such a joy.

Poetry

The Puffin Book of Nonsense Verse, selected by Quentin Blake
"Speak Roughly to Your Little Boy"
"Department of Facts and Queries"
"I Wish I Were a Jelly Fish"
"Sticky Ends"
"Distracting Creatures"
"A Gamut of Achievements" [the end]

As promised, here are a selection of my favourites from the 127 poems included in this anthology:

Typo by Russell Hoban -- probably my favourite

Eletelephony by Laura Richards

The Purist by Ogden Nash

S F by Ernest Leverett

How I Brought the Good News From Aix to Ghent or, Vice Versa by W.C. Sellar & R.J. Yeatman

One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night (anonymous)

I Went to the Pictures Tomorrow (playground rhyme)

Brother and Sister by Lewis Carroll

Fame Was a Claim of Uncle Ed's by Ogden Nash -- helluva name

O'er Seas That Have No Beaches by Mervyn Peake

A Chronicle (anonymous)

Politeness by Harry Graham

Scientific Proof by J.W. Foley

Waste by Harry Graham.

While we're here -- not only, but also:

I Saw a Peacock (anonymous) -- but only once I realised how it was constructed

Belagcholly Days (anonymous) -- very clever

Bleezer's Ice Cream by Jack Prelutsky

Minnow Minnie by Shel Silverstein

Some Aunts and Uncles by Mervyn Peake

The Ahkond of Swat by Edward Lear

The Willow-tree by William Makepeace Thackeray

Capacity by John Updike

Planting a Mailbox by John Updike

The Cod by Lord Alfred Douglas

Kitty by Colin West

Simple Simon (anonymous)

and Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll -- of course.

Articles

When old films never grow old by ghostof82
(from Musings of the Ghost of 82)
"are we objective enough when eulogising the old greats while disparaging the young pretenders? Is a twelve-year old today that loves the Star Wars prequels, who thinks the Original Trilogy is slow and boring, any wiser than me?"
Pretty good article on this topic.